Four Swords is more than pretty fun, Its the greatest competitive co-op ever made.

This title is largely underrated due to how difficult it can be to gather a group of cutthroat backstabbing bastards for this incredible multiplayer co-op/competitive roguelike zelda.

In it, you and a group of 3 other jerks rush to complete a randomly generated dungeon as quickly as possible. There are many different dungeons that range in level challenge from normal to many times harder than other zelda game’s supposed challenging arenas. They all have their own quirks but generally involve a mixture of things you can do alone and need 2-4 people to lift, pull, stand, solve in order to progress/get treasure.

The “goal” of the game is to beat the levels as quickly as possible(time bonus is a multiplier) and gather enough rupees total to unlock further areas. Money is everything in the game, you constantly see your groups total rup collection on the screen and when someone dies an amount is automatically deducted to revive them that doubles with each death.

Links can throw each other, this can be used to reach places without the roc feather and solve puzzles. This is important.
Links can also knock each other away with the sword without inflicting damage. Shove Fighting is tight enough its worthy of its own game. This is also important.

If you work as a team, protect each other and focus on getting to the end as quickly as possible you are COMPLETELY MISSING THE POINT.

The true GOAL of every dungeon is to beat it while gather more rupees than anyone else. At the end of a level it displays in a dramatic fashion each link being raised up into the air by their tower of rupees. Only one person can crowned the winner. This is NOT a matter of honor it is of pride.

So when you complete a section with your “friend” and gain access to 2 treasure chests you don’t run to your chest, you run at your friend, if you can knock him down with your sword you can use his stunned time to toss him out of the room, giving you time to grab BOTH chests you win.

With the right friends even the easiest of dungeons becomes highly challenging as you alternate between battling to near death and co-operating to prove that YOU are the better link.

At many points you’ll split up to search the dungeon as quickly as possible. Running on your own separate screens you will inevitably find treasure and areas you need others to help you unlock. You see ahead into the room and the wheels start turning as to whose help you’re going to get and how you’ll manipulate the situation to get the majority of loot to yourself.

The players all run very slowly. Multiplayer is a constant race slash battle, if you sped the game up to normal Zelda speeds there would be some clear disadvantages:

Throwing and knock back would become less significant if you could recover the distance quickly and it would be much more unlikely to successfully take more than your fair share of treasure.

In addition you would be focusing more on a reactionary rather than strategy focused style of play. Less room for thinking, less weight on your actions, less time to scream at each other or shoot each other death glares.

There are 3 different seeds you can find in the level that increase your abilities until you die. One boosts attack power, one boosts defense and one of them boosts running speed. I don’t remember by how much but the way the game plays everyone naturally gets them all fairly quickly. You could say this compares to the game getting more intense over time. Thought theses seeds on paper sound like they give unfair advantages temporarily they are the only reason for you to kill another player and more often the real reason why Not letting yourself die is so important. dying fucks your chances at coming out on top since you lose your seeds and come back to everyone faster and stronger and more resilient than you.

As you play with 4 people I like to keep an eye on the other players faces, if they find something good I may crash their little party and try to take the treasure for myself. But you need the Pegasus boots(which are TERRIBLE for combat) to have the speed to cover the map effectively.

Still for the sake of time its important to an extent not keep secrets and deliver reports to each other of what you’ve scouted and what areas you’ll tackle as a group first. On the harder dungeons there will be invisible paths, or important puzzle relevant areas only ONE person can see but cannot cross alone so playing this game without communicating verbally would be impossible.

Finally item management is important, every link can only carry one of 9 different alternate items, such as a bomb, shrink cap or roc feather. Items sit on top of stations and by grabbing the item on it trade it for the one in your possession. Fighting or conning people over trading items can be the key to your success in acquiring more money than anyone else.

When It came out in many years ago. I declared it a revolutionary game that would surely be followed by many more competitive co-op games. Its 2014 and there’s only 4swords on the gamecube to match it but that lacked the rougelike element that was essential to replay value.

Like Godhand I feel like this game occupies a niche all on its own and Its because of nobody making games like Godhand or 4swords that I started down the indie dev path.

Get some friends together and play this game! Do not try to play the game by yourself, and try to form an opinion. Single player mode feels like playing The Lost Vikings on a Racetrack, but everyone went home.

 Here are the “moral guidelines” I live by when playing:

1. Truces are for the weak- There is only one winner in four swords and by co-operating with a friend to block out others you’re saying you lack the ability to seize victory by yourself.
2. Continuing to attack someone who has surrendered is taboo. If someone accepts defeat don’t hound them or continue to strike onto them when you have them backed against a wall.
3. On the other side if someone refuses to yield onto the point they die it is their fault.  When you die you are taking rupees away from everyone and there is no greater shame than resurrection. Better to be in 4th place than hold everyone back.
4. Share Armor seeds, Attack Seeds and give the heart container at the end of the level to those who you deem most in need. These items only assist survival not give no advantage in rupee gathering.
5. “Be dirty in action not of word.” I always keep my word and do as I say I will. If I say I’ll share the treasure on the other side of a pit if you throw me across to reach it, I mean it.

And I will do everything and anything inside the game to snatch victory so long as I can do so following my moral code.

DO YOU have a moral code you follow while playing video games? Do you see yourself as a mighty knight as you hunch over a tiny plastic screen? Leave a comment below!